In this historical thriller set against the rich background of the 13th-century Inquisition, the last living troubadour, condemned by the church as a heretic, must rescue a holy Christian relic from a crusading king. Seamlessly weaving the history of the Cathar Crusade with the historical origins of the Tarot deck, this fascinating, genre-bending epic brings symbols of the Tarot to life through medieval characters—Arnot the Knight Templar as the Chariot, Dame Esclarmonde de Foix as the High Priestess, Nevara as the Magician, Pope Innocent IV as the Hierophant, and Ramon Troubadour as the Fool—to create a richly textured historical fantasy that is suspenseful, humourous, tragic, and satirical by turns.

Derek Armstrong is the author of The Game and the coauthor of The Persona Principle. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

A handsome troubadour with a beguiling voice leads an astonishing escape heist aided by a witch, a saint, and a couple of knights, monks, and other assorted characters both great and humble. The setting is southern France, the year, 1241. Tales about the Inquisition are not supposed to be amusing and entertaining, but Armstrong (The Game ) manages to make them just that while keeping historical integrity mostly intact, if making free use of real and folkloric events alike. The fortified city of Carcassonne�also the location for Kate Mosse's Labyrinth �is held by bickering secular and religious authority much aggravated by the capture of The Jewel, a symbolic leader of the Cathar heresy. Readers will encounter a surprising amount of detail on medieval life that unfolds at a steady pace until the impossible rescue of the Silver Dame at a May Day festival. Two more volumes are on the way, ending at the siege of Montsgur. Readers who enjoyed James Patterson and Andrew Gross's The Jester are bound to like this straightforward narrative, and, it should be mentioned, these historical events are a backstory in The Da Vinci Code . Recommended for all public libraries.�Mary-Kay Bird-Guilliams, Wichita P.L., KS

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